Christmas song has Wilmington ties

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A Wilmington native has released a Christmas song he wrote for his parents in the late 1980s, which includes performances by a Boston Pops pianist and vocals from the man known as “The Singing EMT”.

Wilmington High School 1974 graduate Kevin Boring adopted the stage name Sunny Lake and spent 10 years on the road playing music and touring across the United States before attending Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. There he studied music production and engineering.

On Christmas Eve 1987, he sat down at the piano with pen and manuscript paper and wrote “You Are My Christmas Time” which he shared with his parents upon his arrival in Ohio to spend Christmas with them.

The song was not composed to be trendy or hip, said Lake.

“On the contrary, when I wrote this I was listening to a lot of the classics — Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, and so on. So it’s sort of a classic Christmas song,” he said.

The rhythm tracks for it were recorded in 1992, but that October during sessions Lake’s father Bill Boring died.

“I just put it on the shelf,” said Lake of the song.

It was finally produced and released this past year as a new single. The song features “The Singing EMT” Palmer Allen on vocals, and a rhythm section with Bob Winter, a longtime pianist with the Boston Pops since 1980 under the direction of John Williams and Keith Lockhart.

The holiday song is distributed internationally on Amazon, Apple Music/iTunes, Google Play, Spotify and Pandora, as well as iHeart radio and other radio stations that are beginning to pick it up on FM radio. If you don’t have a streaming service provider, you can hear it on YouTube.

Lake has made a career in music. After touring and attending college, he got his first gig as an arranger/producer for the then-emerging New Kids on the Block. That job eventually landed him in New York City, where he started a successful TV and radio jingles company.

Since then, he has operated several recording studios in New York City, Pennsylvania and the Boston area, and has produced bands, jingles, and ads.

Lake has won three separate Emmy Awards, each for Best Original TV Score. He also has taken home a 25 Year Classic Telly Award for Best Original TV Music Score, an NAGC Gold Screen Award and another Telly Award.

Lake said he still considers Wilmington home. He regularly visits his mother Stella Boring who turned 101 in October. She lives in Wilmington and is an active member of the Clinton County Senior Center and the First Christian Church.

While a student at Wilmington High School, he was in local rock and show bands. And he played the organ at Wilmington Church of Christ services and at its Tuesday morning Prayer Breakfasts during the school year.

A Millbury, Massachusetts resident, Lake today operates a boutique recording studio and video production business, working with a variety of diverse artists.

Reach Gary Huffenberger at 937-556-5768.

This is how his 1970s-era Wilmington High School classmates remember Kevin Boring.
https://www.wnewsj.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2019/12/web1_yearbook_p.jpgThis is how his 1970s-era Wilmington High School classmates remember Kevin Boring. Courtesy photos

Sunny Lake — the stage name for Kevin Boring — grew up in Wilmington and has gone on to have a lengthy career in various facets of music.
https://www.wnewsj.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2019/12/web1_k_boring_p.jpgSunny Lake — the stage name for Kevin Boring — grew up in Wilmington and has gone on to have a lengthy career in various facets of music. Courtesy photos
WHS grad multiple award-winner

By Gary Huffenberger

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